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Get Sust! Issue 16
Students have their say
Last month I visited a group of students at Oxford Brookes University who are taking the MSc in Building, energy and sustainability. The idea was to get some face-to-face feedback on this newsletter. Many thanks to all who took part, and the results were very useful.
One thing they suggested was to ask student readers (on any first degree or post-graduate course) to review books. So - if you’re willing to write 200 words or so in return for keeping the review copy, please contact me as soon as possible. E-mail: editor@get-sust.com .
Other improvements to Get Sust are in the pipeline. Please do continue to support the newsletter by sending in news items, announcements and careers information. And don’t forget to pass it on to colleagues who may be interested.
Season’s greetings.
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If a job�s worth doing - do it yourself
I am always surprised when I meet people who don’t think that climate change is an issue. When the press raise queries about the safety of eggs or beef the supermarkets are left with stockpiles of unwanted product. So why is it that the ever-increasing coverage of the risk of climate change (a.k.a. global warming) seems to have very little effect on the public or, indeed, on the behaviour of UK businesses?
Everyone, it seems, is waiting for the government ‘to do something’. And you would be forgiven for thinking that, at long last, it actually is... Witness Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, today announcing with great delight that progress has been made at the UN Climate Change Conference talks in Montreal on reducing greenhouse gas emissions; only a month or two ago we saw Environment Minister Elliot Morley herald a new dawn for energy efficiency of buildings, in the form of revisions to the Building Regulations (Part L) that come into force in April 2006; and just last week Housing and Planning Minister Yvette Cooper published the government’s Code for Sustainable Homes for consultation.
Even the Conservatives - not particularly known for their green credentials - are getting in on the act, with new leader David Cameron immediately announcing that he has set up a policy group on the environment ‘to pave the way for tough decisions on cutting greenhouse gases’.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? But before you throw caution to the wind at the New Year’s eve party, happy in the knowledge that 2006 will be the turning point for UK carbon emissions, read on.
Existing buildings
It is true that changes to Part L include higher levels of insulation, the use of more efficient heating systems, and mandatory air pressure testing of dwellings to check for leakage, but for all the flurry of activity surrounding these new requirements, these changes will only have an impact on new buildings. What about everything else?
Controversially, the government dropped one significant change from Part L - the requirement for energy-efficiency improvements to be made to the main building when a house is being extended. If it had made it into the Regulations that would at least have been a step - albeit small - in the right direction.
Last week Radio 4’s File on 4 programme took a closer look at energy efficiency and included a report from Aberdeen where aerial thermal imaging identified an area of detached homes built in late 1990s showing the highest levels of heat loss. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) was called in to investigate seven of these homes, where poor insulation and draughts were found. Their study revealed that this was not a design problem - it was the quality of building that let these properties down. A further, nationwide study of 100 new homes conducted by BRE found similar faults in about 50% of the properties, which consequently failed to meet Building Regulation requirements.
Poor workmanship is tackled once again in the new version of the Regulations. The Energy Saving Trust’s website, which gives a helpful summary of the main changes, even has a page dedicated to explaining the implications for installers and builders (and another for architects and developers). But is that sufficient? Without adequate enforcement the required standards will not be reached. And let’s not forget that the Part L requirements are intended to be minimum requirements. If half of new homes fail to meet the minimum standard there is surely little hope of meeting the government’s UK target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010. After all, the end of 2010 is just five years away.
Code met with ‘despair’
More bad news for the government came on 1 December, when the WWF resigned ‘in despair’ from the Senior Steering Group for the Code for Sustainable Buildings, on the day the draft was published. A WWF press release says the Code ‘... will represent less than existing commitments for publicly funded housing to go beyond the minimum building regulations for energy efficiency’, and called for the current consultation to be taken very seriously in order to remedy the situation.
According to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (which is responsible for Building Regulations, sustainability and housing), the Code ‘builds on the approach of the EcoHomes standard’, but what it fails to mention is that social housing already has to meet the EcoHomes ‘Good’ standard and for the 2006/08 funding round must achieve a rating of Eco-Homes Very Good. In other words the Code as it stands is a step in the wrong direction!
Taking positive action
As Radio 4’s Julian O’Halloran said in File on 4: ‘The gap between rhetoric and reality on climate policy is growing.’ With the climate change time bomb ticking ever louder, we really can’t wait for the politicians to get their act together - we have to ‘do it ourselves’, and last week saw two key players setting the ball rolling:
First came Wates Group, one of the UK’s major building contractors, which published The Wates Report: Failing Communities - Breaking the Cycle, suggesting that most major construction programmes designed to create sustainable communities are ‘pre-programmed to fail’.
The research behind the report was conducted by David Pearce, Professor Emeritus at University College London (who died earlier this year). The report says:
‘Contractors and designers are insufficiently proactive in demanding information on environmental impacts from suppliers and in passing onto clients expertise in ways of reducing energy use, CO2 emissions and construction-related waste. Clients are colluding in this failure by not demanding environmentally friendly options, and when they are offered, they are all too often rejected on the basis of cost - even where costs will be demonstrably lower in the longer term.’
Releasing the report, Paul Drechsler, CEO of Wates said: ‘The majority of sustainability programmes will fail unless the construction industry gets more engaged’.
Then, at a reception for the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group on Thursday, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) grasped the nettle by launching a register of ‘low carbon consultants’ and issuing a ‘100 day challenge to business’.
The register will become a multi-disciplinary ‘crack force’ of low carbon experts who can advise, say, Building Control officials on the merits of proposed or on-going construction schemes. The performance of the register will be assessed each year - to show the total carbon savings achieved by the system.
Marketing for the Register starts in earnest next year, with new guidance, tools and training, and promotional activities to clients.
Donald Leeper, CIBSE President, also called on all UK businesses to take up the 100 day challenge - to cut energy usage using low-cost or no-cost ‘good housekeeping’ measures to see what they could achieve in 100 days. With luck, many will see the benefit and continue to make improvements.
He also challenged other professional bodies to follow CIBSE’s lead - to adopt an energy-efficiency strategy, and to require members to give due regard to environmental issues (for example, the CIBSE members’ code of conduct says members should ‘Have due regard to environmental issues in carrying out their professional duties).
Let’s hope that more organisations follow this lead in 2006.
Learn more:
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• | The ODPM website has full details of the Building Regulations and Code for Sustainable Homes. See http://www.odpm.gov.uk . |
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• | �Cameron vows �tough� green action� (BBC news on-line)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4512202.stm. |
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• | �UN climate change conference delivers major successes� (Defra press release) http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2005/051210a.htm. |
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• | The Energy Saving Trust website has useful background on changes to the Building Regulations at http://www.est.org.uk. |
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• | The WWF is running a One Million Sustainable Homes campaign - see Get Sust no. 2 http://www.get-sust.com/newsletters/issue2.html#wwf and http://www.wwf.org.uk/sustainablehomes/. |
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• | �Housing Corporation fires starting gun on 2006-08 National Affordable Housing Programme with Pre-Prospectus Publication� (Housing Corporation press release Wednesday 8 June 2005). See http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk/. |
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• | The Wates Report: Failing communities - breaking the cycle is at http://www.wates.co.uk . |
| © Melanie Thompson 2005 | |
Winter warmer - new software helps home-owners save energy
The Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE) has issued an updated version of its Fuel Prophet software, which can help housing managers, householders and policy analysts to decide which of 21 energy-saving measures will bring the most benefit to occupants in times of rising fuel prices.
Fuel costs have been rising steadily since the summer of 2004, and experts think the pattern will continue - which is bad news for the 1.4 million vulnerable households that are estimated to be ‘fuel poor’.
Fuel Prophet was developed as part of a project called ‘Rising fuel prices: the challenge for affordable warmth to heat homes’. The tool can model the impact of 21 measures and combinations of measures in 17 typical home types; measures can be ranked by various indicators such as fuel bill savings, payback or overall cost-effectiveness (Net Present Value).
Learn more: |
• | The updated Fuel Prophet v2 is at http://www.ukace.org/research/fuelprophet. |
| © Melanie Thompson 2005 | |
Try these free simulation tools today
EnergyPlus is a powerful building simulation package that is being developed and supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), and it’s freely available in the public domain. However, it needs a user-friendly interface to enable designers to quickly and easily access its features. Step forward DesignBuilder - a high-level interface to building simulation software developed here in the UK. Put together, these tools allow the user to build up a model building in a series of blocks which are then turned into a three-dimensional image.
DesignBuilder has been described at a recent conference as the ‘best interface to EnergyPlus’. Editable templates give the user complete control of the detail of the model, and the ability to edit the model to account for lighting, heating, ventilation, occupancy and usage patterns. This means you can try out trade-offs between architectural and practical issues such as overheating.
DesignBuilder can be used without a licence to create building models - which is great news for users who are new to simulation techniques. If users purchase a licence, they are then able to obtain environmental performance data or to try out enhanced visualisation techniques such as the effect of solar shading.
Even better news - the developer is intending to adapt the interface so that it can be used to meet the requirements of the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), once the various national governments have decided on calculation strategies for their respective countries. DesignBuilder is already structured to allow its use in any country.
Learn more:
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• | Full details and downloads are at http://www.designbuilder.co.uk. |
| © Melanie Thompson 2005 | |
The case for sustainable homes
A SPONGE/Upstream report that looked at the business case for building sustainable homes has concluded that there is a need for further, more robust evidence, if private developers are to be convinced of the valuable opportunity that building sustainable homes could bring.
The researchers found that there is evidence to suggest that providing sustainable infrastructure (such as a home) can lead to behavioural changes. However, more research is required to find out best to influence residents’ behaviour (e.g. attitude to energy usage) where people need to take action themselves.
The 85-page report suggests that there are ten key questions to strengthen and drive the business case for sustainable homes.Learn more:
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• | To find out what they are, download the report (it�s free) from http://www.spongenet.org/index.php?page=library&cat=5 . |
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Comfort vs efficiency - Guide A launch
There are currently no guidelines on the contentious topic of maximum temperatures in the workplace, but CIBSE is hoping to remedy this situation by revising its ‘Guide A: Environmental design’ and by bringing out a companion volume in the Knowledge Series - ‘Comfort’.These new volumes, the guidelines they set and the thorny issue of how to achieve thermal comfort in a changing climate will be explained and debated in central London on 30 January 2006.
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• | Full details are at http://www.cibse.org (choose events). |
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• | To book a place, contact CIBSE Events. Tel 020 8675 5211. E-mail: jsinfield@cibse.org. |
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Seductive sustainability
People in Space in collaboration with Sponge Sustainability Network is organising a semi-social gathering on 1 February. The events, at Jaguar Shoes basement bar, 34 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, London (6.30 til late) will kick off with quick-fire presentations on sustainable architecture, singing the praises of the best and sexiest buildings and ideas, and handing out an asbestos spoon to the worst greenwash...
Followed by drinking, thinking and more.
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• | People in Space is a new network of young architects and other young people engaged in architecture and the built environment. To find out more, contact Pascale Scheurer. E-mail: info@peopleinspace.com. |
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Great value for students and cricket teams? (CIBSE National Conference 2006)
CIBSE student members (including part-time student members) can go to the CIBSE 2006 national conference for just £25 per day (the balance of the cost will be met from CIBSE’s education fund). There will also be a ‘young engineers luncheon session’ on the first day, led by Ant Wilson from FaberMaunsell.
But those aren’t the only reasons why you should put the event - on 21 and 22 March - in your diaries. The conference, on the theme ‘Engineering the Future’ will take place at the Oval Cricket Ground in south London - and will include tours of the Oval Cricket Ground, the PV roof of South Bank University, Plantation Place, and City Hall.
The cricketing theme is followed through by the offer of substantial discounts for companies who send a ‘cricket team’ (i.e. 11 people). Companies who cannot field a whole team are instead invited to suggest a young engineer (under 35 years old) to attend as the team-mate of a paying delegate; the team-mate will be admitted at the substantially reduced rate of £350.
... oh, and the conference will provide two intensive days of over 50 oral presentations and 20 poster papers by leading experts from around the world. |
• | Full details of the programme are at http://www.cibse.org. |
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• | Contact CIBSE Events. Tel: 020 8675 5211. E-mail: jsinfield@cibse.org. |
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• | Early-bird booking discount is available until 27 January 2006. |
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Dawn of the solar era?
The ‘Fossil Fuel Age’ is coming to an end; the ‘Renewable Age’ is just beginning. So say the organisers of the International Solar Cities Congress in Oxford on 3-6 March 2006. This event will bring together the mayors of over 50 cities plus the brightest and best from the world of business, science, government and community delegates.The Congress aims to create a clear set of measures that can be adopted by cities globally in the form of the ‘Oxford Declaration’, which will be a major step forward in practically mapping a route into the Renewable Age.
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• | Learn more at http://www.solarcities.org.uk. |
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New award for research
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has launched a new awards scheme – the RIBA President’s Awards for Research - to reward and encourage outstanding research in architecture carried out by PhD students, academics and practitioners.
Every year there will be an award for the best PhD thesis from a UK RIBA validated school of architecture. In addition, on alternate years there will be awards for outstanding academic-led research and outstanding practice-led research (starting with the academic award in the first year). Completed research projects initiated in UK RIBA-validated schools of architecture may be submitted for the this award, limited to one submission from each school.
Award winners will receive a certificate and a citation from the RIBA President, plus the opportunity to have the work featured in the RIBA Journal and on the RIBA website.
There is no entrance fee for submissions. |
• | Full details are at http://www.riba.org. Submission deadline for the first awards is 1 June 2006, and the Award Ceremony will be in mid-October 2006. |
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Ashden Awards for sustainable energy projects
The 2005 Ashden Awards will reward outstanding, inspirational and innovative local sustainable energy projects, programmes or products that both protect the environment and make real improvements to people's quality of life.
There will be up to three first prizes of £30,000 with second prizes of £10,000 for demonstrated local energy solutions in the field of electricity generation (such as micro-hydro, wind, solar photovoltaics), heat generation (biomass, heat pumps, solar water heating and so on) and energy-efficiency measures.
Please note: the Awards are not grants for start-up projects. They are designed to prove to the public and policy makers that local energy solutions offer viable, practical ways of both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting the social and economic needs of local communities.There is no entrance fee for submissions.
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• | Full details are at http://www.ashdenawards.org. Closing date for entries is 19 January 2006. |
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Energy consultant, London
Whitbybird is seeking an energy consultant to play a key role in its sustainability and renewables team. Candidates should have a physics or engineering degree and commercial experience in the application of sustainable and renewable energy technologies.
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• | Please send with a short and informal covering letter to Aurore Julien. E-mail: aurore.julien@whitbybird.com and fwd to recruitment@whitbybird.com . (Please mention Get Sust when replying to this advertisement.) |
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• | See also http://www.whitbybird.com. |
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Project Director for Dorset Eco-Village
The Rural Renewal Company (RRC) is a social enterprise company formed in 2003 to act as project manager, developer, and consultant, to create integrated developments that address the needs of rural areas. The Project Director will play a central role creating the RRC’s benchmark project: the Natural Living Centre/Dorset Eco-Village, a £25million mixed-use sustainable development.
The ideal candidate is probably a professional with substantial management experience in housing/property development, who shares the values of this project and wants to make a key career move into the sustainable construction sector. The post-holder will probably work between 3 and 5 days per week. Salary: £40-50k pro rata full-time equivalent, plus ‘sweat equity’ opportunities to share in the company’s financial success.
Potential sites for the benchmark project are in North and East Dorset, so you need to be located within reach of these areas, or willing to move. Initially your office location may be home-based or at RRC’s office in Gillingham, North Dorset.
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• | Full details of RRC’s vision, and the Project Director’s role can be found at http://www.ruralrenewal.co.uk . |
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• | To apply or discuss this further, please contact Alan Heeks. Tel: 01747 835835. E-mail: data@workingvision.com. (Please mention Get Sust when replying to this advertisement.) |
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Environmental impact assessment practitioners, North Wales
Richards, Moorehead & Laing Ltd is looking for experienced EIA practitioners and project environmental coordinators. The successful candidate will have at least 5 years’ post-qualification experience, including some work in consultancy. We would particularly value candidates with experience in highways projects, minerals extraction and restoration, and environmental planning and management.
Full membership of IEMA (Assessor) and/or Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management or equivalent body is preferred, although candidates possessing the requirements for membership will be considered.
Current projects include highway improvements, minerals sites, landscape management, habitat creation and housing sites.
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• | See http://www.rmlconsult.com for full details, or contact David Richards. Tel: 01824 704366. E-mail: d.richards@rmlconsult.com . Closing date: 30 December 2005. (Please mention Get Sust when replying to this advertisement.) |
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Housing Corporation, Head of Research and Business Information
The Housing Corporation’s Head of Research and Business Information will build a new team in Cambridge to: establish the Corporation as a major player in social policy research; find new ways to use regulatory and investment data to deliver more effective outputs across the organisation; and transform the way it promotes good practice and innovation.
Candidates should have an entrepreneurial approach to the collection, use and analysis of business information and a strong record in commissioning, managing and promoting the highest quality research. You will have strong social research experience (although not necessarily in housing) with a proven ability to manage people, budgets and significant contracts. Salary: up to £65,000.
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• | For details of how to apply and more information about this role visit www.wheretalentlives.co.uk or contact David Schwarz (tel: 020 7017 0932) or Stephen Crookbain (tel: 020 7017 0911). Please quote reference: HC004. Closing date: 6 January 2006. |
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